That's a lot of hyphens! This advertisement, which appeared in issue #114 of Dragon (October 1986) was the first time I'd heard that GDW was preparing to release another science fiction roleplaying game. Based on its title, I assumed – falsely, as it turned out – that it was some kind of prequel to Traveller. Of course, being the Traveller fan I was, the date included in the title struck me as even more intriguing. Why 2300? In the history of the Third Imperium setting, 2300 AD is just a handful of years before the Terran defeat of the Vilani (First) Imperium and the establishment of the Rule of Man (aka the Second Imperium). That really excited me, as I often thought the Rule of Man would be a great alternate setting for Traveller. My assumption proved mistaken, however, and Traveller: 2300 proved to be a very different game than I was initially expecting.
Not being as much of a Traveller fan as you—I only have the original game—I only just found out about it… from you. If you’re looking for post ideas, how it differs from what a Traveller prequel would look would be, I think, interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a great idea for a post.
DeleteSeconded!
Delete(And maybe that would be a good opportunity to talk about the GURPS Traveller setting-book for the 'Interstellar Wars' period as well?)
The prequel we got in T4 with the Milieu Zero campaign was somewhat less satisfactory than expected. However IIRC there was also a list of future Milieu settings they intended to explore, both ‘before’ and ‘after’ the classic setting.
DeleteStill, one could have taken the existing Classic material (Atlas, DGP stuff about Core) and reverse-engineered a decent campaign about the early days of the Sylea-to-empire or Terran confederation time periods. Come to think of it, that sounds better than the ‘wipe the slate clean’ of the New Era.
I personally never did, but I remember hearing talk fairly frequently (on the old TML) of others doing just what you describe in the second paragraph. I kind of assumed, I guess, that some of those independent efforts might have fed their way into the GT:IW book in the 2000s.
DeleteIn a 2300 AD game run by a friend that is a Traveller buff way more than I am, we ended up being the group of explorers that made first contact with the Vilani.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great way to end a campaign.
Same, in a couple of games/campaigns! Not always exactly the same Vilani as from the Traveller proper universe -- I don't think I ever tried to literally 'bridge the timelines' -- but using them as a 'final reveal' that pulls out the carpet from under/resets the sense of scale of the players.
DeleteIt would be 30 years from that ad until you finally (sort of...) got the product that you'd hoped it would be in the form of GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars
ReplyDeleteSo glad you'll be discussing this game here! I came at it from the opposite perspective. My high school friends and I had played Twilight 2000 in 1985, and somewhere along the way in the subsequent 2-3 years (in those pre-Internet days) I came to understand somehow that Traveller: 2300 was not really Traveller, but instead a 'space sequel' to Twilight 2000. Around this time, GDW changed the name of the game to just "2300." I know that because I still have there-titled "2300" boxed set in a closet, essentially never used, because, for me anyway, the game "fell between two stools." It wasn't post-apocalyptic enough to meet my Twilight 2000 expectations/preferences, but it was also much more 'realistic' than I personally preferred as a teenaged boy for a game about venturing into space.
ReplyDeleteI bought the core box set for 2300 when it was released. It was obvious to me that the game was capitalized on the trend in sci-fi laid down by movies like Outland, Alien, and the '86 sequel which I really like. It's interesting, because T:2300 is a product of it's time, with a new Cold War going into space, more or less. It's weird looking back and seeing how much of the past in our timeline is noticeably different than what unfolded in T:2300
ReplyDeleteAh,Traveller 2300 AD. It's just like regular Traveller but with all the fun filed off.
ReplyDelete